Issue Date: June 20, 2004
Is there any truth to the story that Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones are feuding?
Tasha Myles, Brooklyn, N.Y.
No. That rumor's been around since they co-starred in 2001's "America's Sweethearts," but their respective reps tell us it's not true. In fact, they're together again, in George Clooney's "Ocean's Twelve," the sequel to "Ocean's Eleven," due in December. Roberts was Clooney's ex in "Eleven" and is the "Twelve" in the sequel. Zeta-Jones, Clooney's wife in "Intolerable Cruelty," is Brad Pitt's ex in "Twelve."
Given the massive popularity of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," are there plans to make it into a movie?
Sarah Pruce, Chardon, Ohio
You bet. Studios clamored for rights to the theological thriller with a staggering 7.6 million copies in print in 40 languages. Columbia Pictures snagged it for $6 million and installed "A Beautiful Mind's" team of Ron Howard (director), Brian Grazer (producer) and Akiva Goldsman (screenwriter). There's buzz about Russell Crowe and Kate Beckinsale as leads, but Harrison Ford, 61, has public opinion in his favor to play symbologist-sleuth Robert Langdon.
I fell in love with Tom Cavanagh the first time I saw him on "Providence" and faithfully followed him to his show "Ed." Why was that popular show taken off the air?
Peggy Taylor, Frankfort, Ind.
"Ed" was sweet and quirky and tapped into baby-boomer nostalgia, but it wasn't exactly a hit -- it was No. 68 in the Nielsen ratings for the season. It didn't help that Cavanagh, 35, who played the title character, did little to promote it.
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You know you've made it when "Saturday Night Live" lampoons you, a fact not lost on James Lipton, creator-host-producer of Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio." Lipton, 77, believes his no-frills celebrity Q&A show is worthy of the now-legendary Will Ferrell spoof. "We reach 76 million homes, we're broadcast in 125 countries, and we've received eight consecutive Emmy nominations," he says of his brainchild, which marks 10 years on air Sunday with a two-hour, star-filled special. Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner and Ellen Burstyn make appearances; a marquee of other stars will be seen in clips from 150 interviews. While Lipton's critics lambaste him as a self-promoting suck-up, the former "Guiding Light" star remains unfazed. "It is a classroom, a course in a master's program at a university."
Last I read, Bruce Willis was dating actress Brooke Burns. Has anything changed?
Leesha Rader, Spring Lake, Mich.
Yes. Willis, 49, and Burns, 26, reportedly called it quits in May. Willis -- who spent Memorial Day weekend in Hailey, Idaho, with ex-wife Demi Moore (yes, Ashton Kutcher was there, too) and their daughters, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle -- plans to spend much of the summer with his kids. He just finished "Hostage" for fall release; he plays a retired LAPD hostage negotiator back in business after his wife and daughter are kidnapped. Burns stars in the new Fox drama "North Shore," shooting in Hawaii.
Your Joan Cusack item in the May 21-23 issue had some incorrect info on her latest work on TLC. Cusack is the narrator for a cartoon about a chicken named Peep, not the voice of a penguin. Trust me; as the mom of a 2- and 3-year-old, I know.
Robin Gorton, Indianapolis
You're right, Robin. I got my TLC characters mixed up. Thanks for setting the record straight.
Guy Pearce, 36, is so quiet and polite in person that it has always been shocking to see him transform into an extrovert in such films as "Memento; The Adventures of Priscilla," "Queen of the Desert"; and the current "A Slipping-Down Life," in which he's a wannabe rock star. But acting is Pearce's emotional release. He has an older sister, Tracey, born with Cornelia de Lange syndrome, "a genetic thing [that] means various parts of her brain didn't develop. She's fascinated with things others aren't, the minute details of life." Pearce, whose dad died when he was 8, says Tracey taught him "how to observe life in a different way." He and wife Kate live in Melbourne, Australia, near his mother and sister.On June 25, he'll be seen as a hunter in" Two Brothers."
Was the falling-out between Rocco DiSpirito and his financial partner on NBC's "The Restaurant" for real or for the cameras?
Jennifer English, Tucson
For real, says the popular chef, 37: "It's costing me incredible emotional and financial strain." DiSpirito tells us there's more to it than the conflicts viewers saw between him and partner-financier Jeffrey Chodorow. There have been lawsuits and countersuits off-camera, too. Yet the Queens, N.Y.-born son of Italian immigrants insists the experience has been so "overwhelmingly positive" he's ready to get back on the tube with a talk show in the fall of 2005. Explains DiSpirito: "It has the information of Martha Stewart, the personality of Rosie and the encouragement of Oprah."
I just saw the movie "Connie and Carla" and was impressed with Toni Collette's performance. Please tell me more about her.
Jeff Zarch, Boca Raton, Fla.
Collette, 31, is an Australian actress who 10 years ago bulked up to play a wannabe bride in "Muriel's Wedding." Since then she's played a number of great characters in such movies as "The Sixth Sense" and "About a Boy." At home, Collette, married to a drummer, is as down-to-earth as can be. "I like just doing regular things like cooking and cleaning," she says. "There's something very satisfying about hanging out laundry."
Collette
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BIRTHDAYS
June 20: Nicole Kidman, 37; Lionel Richie, 55
June 21: Prince William, 22
June 22: Donald Faison, 30; Carson Daly, 31; Amy Brenneman, 40; Bruce Campbell, 46; Cyndi Lauper, 51; Meryl Streep, 55
June 23: Clarence Thomas, 56
June 24: Sherry Stringfield, 37
June 25: Dikembe Mutombo, 38; Carly Simon, 59
June 26: Derek Jeter, 30; Chris O'Donnell, 34; Sean Hayes, 34
Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Kevin Maynard, Nancy Mills, Evelyn Poitevent
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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